In Re Estate of Coffman

1970 OK 171, 474 P.2d 942
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 22, 1970
DocketNo. 42282
StatusPublished

This text of 1970 OK 171 (In Re Estate of Coffman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Estate of Coffman, 1970 OK 171, 474 P.2d 942 (Okla. 1970).

Opinion

LAVENDER, Justice:

This appeal involves an order of the District Court of Greer County, Oklahoma, in an appeal from the county court of that county,’ wherein the district court affirmed an order of the county court admitting a testamentary instrument dated June 30, 1964, to probate as the last will and testament of Myrtie S. Coffman, deceased, and denying admission to probate of a testamentary instrument dated June 12, 1948.

The later instrument was offered for probate by the defendants in error herein, Sarah Gore and S. H. Coffman, children of the decedent who are nominated therein as executors thereof, who are hereinafter referred to as the proponents. The plaintiff in error, S, D. Coffman, another child of the decedent, whose given name is Sidney and who is hereinafter referred to as the contestant, filed written objections to the admission of that instrument to probate, and, by separate petition, offered the earlier instrument for probate. The proponents of the later instrument filed written objections to the admission of the earlier instrument to probate, on the grounds that it was not executed, published, and attested in the manner and form prescribed by law, and that it was expressly revoked by the decedent in the later will, and was not the last will and testament of the decedent.

Myrtie S. Coffman died on January 21, 1966, in, and while a resident of, Granite in Greer County, Oklahoma, and owning real and personal property in that county which was later valued at a total of $122,-669.19 by appraisers appointed by the county court. Her husband had died in 1949, and she was survived by the contestant and five other children and three children of a predeceased son, Cornell Coffman.

In the 1964 instrument, the decedent, after providing for the payment of all of her just debts, etc., left “the sum of Ten Dollars ($10.00) and nothing;, more” to the [944]*944contestant herein, and the balance of her estate was left, an undivided one-sixth to each of the five other children, an undivided one-twenty-fourth to each of the two daughters of her son, Cornell Coff-man, and an undivided one-twelfth in trust for the use and benefit of the son of said Cornell Coffman. This instrument expressly revoked all former wills and testamentary dispositions and instruments made by the decedent.

In addition to alleging that the 1964 instrument was not executed, published and attested as required by law, the contestant alleged in his objections to the admission thereof to probate, that, in making such will, the decedent was acting under duress, menace, fraud and undue influence, and that, on June 12, 1948, the decedent and her husband, Albert S. Coffman, entered into an oral contract pursuant to which he executed a will, on that date, which was duly admitted to probate in the County Court of Greer County, Oklahoma, about July 15, 1949, and which left all of his property and estate to the said Myrtie S. Coffman, in consideration for which, she agreed that she would, by will, leave all of their property and estate to their seven children in equal shares, and, some time after the death of the said Albert S. Coff-man, this decedent did make such a will. He alleged that, by reason of Albert S. Coffman’s death after having fully performed his part of such contract, this decedent was bound and obligated to carry out her part of the agreement by making a valid will leaving all of their property and estates to their seven children in equal shares, and was not privileged to make a new will which would, in fact, disinherit the contestant.

On motion of the proponents, the county court struck from the contestant’s objections to the probate of the 1964 instrument, and from his petition for probate of the 1948 instrument (which adopted those allegations), his allegations concerning such contract and the effect thereof, and refused to admit any evidence concerning such a contract. After a full hearing on the petitions and objections (a transcript of which was, by stipulation of the parties admitted in evidence at the district court hearing), the county court admitted the 1964 instrument to probate as the last will and testament of this decedent, and denied admission to probate of the 1948 will, which the county court expressly found in its journal entry had been effectively revoked by the decedent in the 1964 will. The contestant appealed to the district court.

At the district court hearing de novo on the appeal, that court overruled the proponent’s objections to the admission of testimony concerning an oral contract entered into between the decedent and Albert S. Coffman on June 12, 1948, the will of Albert S. Coffman, which had been admitted to probate after his death, and two instruments, testamentary in form, dated September 22, 1950, and January 13, 1954, respectively, each of which purported to be the “Last Will and Testament of Myrtie S. Coffman,” and left all of her property and estate (after payment of debts, etc.) to her seven children, named therein, including this- contestant, in equal shares. The only difference in the text of these two instruments is that the 1950 instrument designated T. H. Coffman as sole executor thereof, whereas the 1954 instrument designated Cornell Coffman (the deceased son mentioned in the 1964 instrument) as sole executor thereof. However, the portion where the signatures of the testator and attesting witnesses would ordinarily, appear, had been cut or torn off the 1950 instrument, and the signature of the testator on the 1954 instrument, if it had been there, had been obliterated by a large ink splotch, and no attempt was made to prove the due execution, publication, and attestation of either of such instruments as a will. Also, no attempt was made at either hearing to prove the due execution, publication and attestation of the 1948 instrument propounded for probate by the contestant.

[945]*945Ih addition to several findings of fact on specific matters in its journal entry, the district court found that the issues must be resolved in favor of the proponents of the 1964 instrument, and ordered, adjudged and decreed that the will of Myrtie S. Coff-man dated June 30, 1964, be admitted to probate and that her will dated June 12, 1948, be denied probate, and that the order of the county court be affirmed.

After the overruling of his motion for a new trial, the contestant appealed to this court.

Contestant presents all of his assignments of error in two propositions. We shall first discuss his second proposition, which is to the effect that a will executed as a part of a contract to make a testamentary disposition of property in a certain way becomes irrevocable upon the death of the other contracting party who has performed his part of the contract, and continues to be the last will and testament of the testator or testatrix in spite of a later will which disposes of the property in a different way than provided in the contract, so that the later, conflicting will cannot be admitted to probate and the earlier will which was a part of, or in accordance with, such contract, should be admitted to probate.

In our discussion of this proposition, we shall assume, as the proposition does, that the 1948 instrument propounded for probate by the contestant was executed, published, and attested in accordance with the applicable statute (84 O.S.1941, § 55, now 84 O.S.1961, § 55), even though, as mentioned above, no attempt was made by the contestant to establish those facts, other than the genuineness of the signature of Myrtie S. Coffman at the end thereof.

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Bluebook (online)
1970 OK 171, 474 P.2d 942, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-coffman-okla-1970.